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I may chat about my books, what I'm writing or reading, or just general thoughts. You may read posts about my cats or just my crazy life in general. Comments are welcome, if anyone wants to interact with me. Maybe we can share war stories, whether it's writing related or just about life in general.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

A Visitor Arrives

When I got home from work a couple of days ago, I was
standing at the kitchen sink washing my hands to fix dinner. I have a nice window there that looks to the
backyard and the desert beyond. Looking
out at nature makes chores more pleasant.

This was the only way to get his length from the window

I spotted our visitor right away and grabbed the
camera. Hubby was oblivious until I
said, “Look what’s drinking out of the water dish?” He was lying on the couch watching politics.

I proceeded outside after the snake slithered off across the
grass. There was a lizard on the rock
wall that surrounds the top level of our yard and I think he had his eye on
that for dinner. I got this shot of
him/or her on the rocks.

Once he saw me he slithered down to this hidey-hole. I had to come in and fix dinner so I’m not
sure how long he stayed there. The
lizard escaped, as far as know. The
snake was probably annoyed with me for interfering with his meal.

I don’t know what kind of snake this is. Someone told me last year this type of snake
was a red racer, but I’ve never heard of such a thing. Apparently, they’re common in this part of
the desert and are harmless. We started
seeing this type of snake a couple of years ago, always drinking from the water
bowl and then slithering off into the desert again. I suspect he’s always come and we just
weren’t looking.

I always leave water pans around in the yard for any critter
that happens by so they can find water.
It’s in short supply in the desert. However, we've had rain lately and things are gorgeous.

I was surprised too the first time this happened. I guess now it's become "old hat," but we're still respectful of snakes and don't bother them. They don't seem to want to get near us either.

The very large one I saw on our front walk a couple of years ago did startle me. I walked right up on him because I wasn't expecting a snake to be there. It turns out he was just a bull snake and harmless but he was three times the size of this guy and quite fierce looking. They look like rattle snakes but without the rattles. I watch where I'm walking now.